Inside 'The Firm'

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Legal practices may appear staid and polished from the outside,
but Linda Robles, IS manager for law firm Bell Gully, knows client
demands and a time critical industry present a distinct set of
challenges.

When Linda Robles, national systems development manager for law
firm Bell Gully, helped implement an organisation-wide document
management system project, she found there was no substitute for
experience.

"You need to be a wily old coyote to be in this role; age and
experience really helps," she says.

With a diploma in business information from the University of
Auckland and a work background in software development, database
management and systems analysis, Robles has been with Bell Gully
for eight years, including over three in her present position.

IT at Bell Gully is split into two teams, with Robles heading up
systems development and Elizabeth Ginda operations management. Both
managers report to Leslie Davidson, Bell Gullys commercial
director.

Robles and Ginda support the information needs of 230 lawyers
and local and international clients - Robles specific
responsibilities include project team, analyst, and DBA management
with Gindas including network infrastructure and help desk
support management.

Robles says length of IS experience is useful in a fast-paced
legal environment where lawyers require immediate action on behalf
of themselves or their clients and there is no time for running
back and forth to clarify user requirements.

"Experience always aids you in future projects because a lot of
projects work as long as you understand the methodologies."

Law is not a homogenous product sold to a vast market, says
Robles. "Each client is different and their issues might change
from year to year or even over six month periods. In that way, each
client issue becomes like a project and the Bell Gully team works
together to meet the needs."

Nor are IS demands only driven by the firms clients.
Internal customers, Bell Gullys lawyers, can meet a client in
the morning and want an IS task completed for their client by the
afternoon.

"It might be to set up a collaboration extranet, to develop an
automatic notification to lawyers regarding work progress, or to
make sure the information we are sharing with an individual client
is presented in the best format possible," says Robles.

She says experience is also helpful when evaluating vendor
claims and issuing requests for information. "It becomes
increasingly easier to get to the core of the information and cut
to the chase. Vendors are aware there is more maturity in the
market and know that unrealistic claims in regard to software will
be discounted."

Bringing documents into line
In 2003, Robles and her team found themselves listening to vendor
claims in conjunction with feedback from other organisations as
they searched for a new document management system.

Driven by the need for a new, more efficient streamlined system,
and with an IS focus on improving productivity, the firm sought an
answer to a legacy document management system less streamlined for
internal and external document exchange processes, and clumsier
than the firm would have liked.

"We wanted to take advantage of vast improvements in the
document management system software space; we were also using a
customised solution at the front end, and wanted something easier
to use that had a collaborative aspect," says Robles.

A dedicated project team of seven started by talking with end
users, gathering feedback and evaluating several document
management systems over a six-month period. The shortlist, with
positioning analysis, was presented to the firms board with
the teams recommendations.

"The project team did a great deal of in-depth analysis and had
such a good case it was more a matter of do we go?
rather than who do we go with?" says Robles.

The board signed off the teams recommendation to invest in
iManage document management software from US company Interwoven, a
decision that gave Robles and others working on the project the
green light to drive change management and develop user champions
within the organisation.

Change management An initial communication plan was developed
including a four-week needs analysis process.

During this phase, the new system was discussed with staff, and
the project management team spent three to four months planning,
conducting design workshops and gathering input from user
experience. After that, says Robles, a formal communication plan
was implemented and a pilot launched.

"For a two-month period, we engaged two teams of lawyers and
support staff chosen because they were fairly self-contained as
pilot users. This was a luxury because document management system
pilots are not often technically possible and can be too disruptive
to the business. We migrated team specific documents over to the
pilot system."

She says the pilot users became system champions and provided
invaluable feedback - but the firm had other change management and
feedback strategies running concurrently.

"We had sessions where people could just look and play and we
gave users quite a bit of responsibility in terms of cleaning up
their own documents. At rollout, we devolved IT support people onto
the office floor for on the spot support and we additionally
offered classroom training for all users," says Robles.

Lessons learned
The firms attention to change management and planning appears
to have paid off. Robles says the new system is stable and has
required little in the way of maintenance and support.

"Its implementation means it is now as easy as possible for
lawyers and their clients to access the information they need. Any
law firm makes its money on the hours its partners spend with
clients, so our role is to free up as many hours as possible."

She says while a document management system is core to any law
firm, in essence it is simple to execute and uses straightforward
technologies.

"We offer three ways of accessing documents and any kind of
document can be saved whether its a fax, PDF, email or hard
copy. We set up folders relating to work collaboration."

However, Robles says if she had her time over again on the
project, she would like to spend a little more time on system
design.

"There is always a temptation to hurry through design; if you
take more time it means less tweaking later on."

Despite this, Robles says the business objectives around the new
document management system have been met and measured (an important
achievement given the key pressures of the legal industry

"This is a highly competitive, confidential and security driven
environment; basic IT risk management is crucial and time pressures
are always present. We dont want to waste [our lawyers]
time, so we make sure we are very well prepared."

Robles describes herself as a driven person who works long hours
by choice. ("At other stages in my working life I might have been
less eager to do so.") Her favourite projects are related to the
web, database and user interface design, and data architecture.

"These are important in an environment like the legal industry
where knowledge is critical but I also have a strong personal
interest," says Robles.

However, she dislikes the idea of being given a completely free
rein to implement new technologies or develop existing ones.

"I prefer to be driven by what is a requirement or by potential
opportunities; Im not a fan of playing with technology for
the sake of it."

Describing her job as "all consuming", she says it can be an
effort to maintain a work/life balance.

"It is different for every person; actually I am happy to put in
the hours because the work I do is so challenging and
enjoyable."

Much is this time is spent working on concurrent IS projects -
the firm has an IS roadmap for the next 12 months and another going
forward three to five years. "At any one time I could be working on
two large projects and four to five smaller ones. Some will be
standalone within systems development and others will overlap with
IT operations; there is often a continuum from one area to the
other."

She says her largest challenge was the firms 1999 practice
management systems upgrade. "I was doing my diploma at the same
time and burning a huge amount of energy here and at
university."

Whatever the project, Robles says she is helped by a close
management team and collegial working environment. "We have formal
and informal communication structures; we work together on a daily
basis, and our projects touch a lot of the business units and
managers.

"Its exciting - theres never a dull moment really."
Learn: How to get user buy-in and build champions. Why experience
and a number of years on the job can make all the difference. What
design elements are important when building a document management
system.

Rate your challenges
When interviewing business executives, MIS asks them to rate the
most challenging elements of managing a project. Here, Linda
Robles, national systems development manager, rates her challenges
in managing IS projects.

Most challenging Keeping projects on time and on budget Finding
and motivating the right staff Strategy and planning Getting
support of board and CEO Getting support of other company
stakeholders (including users) Managing vendors Managing
emergencies Selecting vendors

Most challenging Robles has two tips for keeping projects on
time and on budget: Ensure no shortcuts are taken in project
planning and assess business benefits realistically.

For managing emergencies, she says it is vital to actively
manage risk upfront before it presents as an emergency.
"If an emergency does occur, be very clear about priority
actions."

Tips for project management Key Bell Gully business objectives
for a new document management system and how these were measured:
Objective Ensure a high level of reliability, scalability and
security. Implement a configurable out of the box
system with inbuilt integration capability. Empower legal users by
providing them with enhanced access to and control of information.
Support remote working. Provide a solution to email overload.
Reinforce knowledge management practises. Support virtual team
collaboration. Streamline document life cycle management.

Measurement Extremely low level of support required. Level of
customisations to be maintained reduced significantly. Lawyers are
able to work effectively in the style that is best fit for them and
their team. Flexible interface access options. Security access
meets every business requirement. Create, modify and retrieve
documents remotely. Email automatically profiled and easily stored
in iManage Legal teams manage own sets of precedent information.
Ability to work in virtual teams collaboratively with other lawyers
and share documents with clients. Effectively manage retention and
disposition policies. Corporate summary: Name: Bell Gully
Locations: Auckland and Wellington Business: Legal services Total
employees: 500 Head of IS: Linda Robles/Elizabeth Ginda Number of
IT staff: 23